1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the storage of data and, more particularly, to the compression, recording and playing of video data.
2. Related Art
Compression is the process of encoding an image such that it requires less space for storage. There are two fundamental ways to compress image data: lossy compression and lossless compression. Examples of lossy compression schemes include JPEG and MPEG. Lossy compression can provide a very high compression ratio. However, during the encoding process some data will be irreversibly lost Consequently, a lossy encoded image will have some degradation of visual quality when expanded. Lempel-Ziv and Welch (LZW) encoding and Rice encoding are two well known lossless compression algorithms. Lossless compression usually results in compression ratios lower than those obtained with lossy compression. However, the benefit of compressing an image using a lossless compression scheme is that once expanded, the resulting image will be exactly as it was prior to being compressed.
Traditionally, with any compression algorithm, the compression ratio is data dependent. Accordingly, the compression ratio cannot be predicted. However, in certain instances, control of the compression ratio is desired. For example, a video cassette recorder (VCR) tape has a constant bandwidth capacity. Likewise, a hard disk array has a maximum data storage capacity; therefore, when recording data onto either storage device, it is highly desirable to control the compression ratio of the data. The importance of this control is even more evident when one considers the recent developments in the area of high definition television (HDTV).
As compared with conventional TV, HDTV signals have higher resolution and require more bandwidth for storage. For example, an HDTV image presented in 1080i format with 444 sampling and 8 bit resolution has a bandwidth of 1.5 Gbits/s. Present VCR tapes are unable to meet such storage demands. While recording devices and media (e.g., tapes, ROM cartridges, magnetic or optical disks) capable of recording HDTV images will be developed, compression will still be desirable, if not necessary.
A feature of HDTV is the high quality resolution of the images produced. Thus, any compromising of the visual image is not desirable. As already mentioned, lossy compression results in diminished video quality. Likewise, as one considers the bandwidth constraints imposed by storage media, it is evident that the use of a lossless compression scheme can also create problems. Consider the following explanation. The compressed bit streams of image sequences produced by lossless compression schemes often include bandwidth peaks. Bandwidth peaks are the result of producing a number of successive frames with a very low compression ratio. If the storage media, a VCR tape for example, lacked the capacity to store the bandwidth peak portions of the bit stream then the data would be lost. Buffering is used to avoid this scenario. Buffering, however, raises the potential for two additional problems: latency and buffer overflow, both of which result in lost data and/or diminished visual quality. Therefore, what is needed is a method for compressing data, in particular, high definition television image data, such that the resulting bit stream bandwidth is kept relatively constant and the image quality is not compromised. These results allow the bit streams to be recorded on a storage medium and viewed without diminished visual quality.